David Lapham is an American comic book writer, artist, and cartoonist, best known for his work on the independent comic book Stray Bullets.

David Lapham
NationalityAmerican
Area(s)Artist, writer
Notable works
Stray Bullets
Harbinger
AwardsBest Writer/Artist Eisner Awards (1996)

Career

edit

David Lapham started his career in 1990 as a penciller at Valiant Comics. He went on to work under editor Jim Shooter at Defiant Comics, where they co-created Warriors of Plasm in 1993.[1]

He set up his own publishing company, El Capitan Books, in 1995, to self-publish Stray Bullets which he wrote, drew and lettered himself. He then took a sabbatical from Stray Bullets in 2000, to produce his nine-issue period murder mystery Murder Me Dead, also from El Capitan Books.[1]

Lapham began working on more mainstream comics work from 2005 onwards, writing a story arc for Top Cow Comics' The Darkness ("Hell House", vol. 2, #17–20), a 12-part Batman storyline in Detective Comics ("City of Crime" #801–808 and 811–814) for DC Comics and writing and pencilling the six-part Daredevil Vs. Punisher: Means And Ends limited series for Marvel Comics. In late 2006, Marvel released Giant-Size Wolverine #1, with a 34-page Lapham story illustrated by David Aja, and DC began releasing Tales of the Unexpected with an eight-issue arc starring the Spectre, which was also written by Lapham. Vertigo published the original graphic novel Silverfish in July 2007, and he drew Terror, Inc. for the Marvel MAX line. He then wrote the Vertigo series Young Liars and took over from Garth Ennis as writer on Crossed.[2]

Publication of Stray Bullets ceased after its fortieth issue, along with Lapham's self-published futuristic science-fiction miniseries, The Parallax Man. The Parallax Man had been announced to debut in 2005 but was never officially solicited. In 2007, Lapham expressed interest in completing both projects.[3] 2009 saw the release of Dark Horse: Noir, which included a Stray Bullets story that took place within the still incomplete arc. In March 2010, it was reported that Lapham was working on a Predator series for Dark Horse Comics.[4]

In March 2014, the long-awaited forty-first and final issue of the initial Stray Bullets arc and series as whole was released after the Laphams made a deal with Image Comics.[citation needed] On the same day, an omnibus edition of all forty-one issues was released, as well as the first issue of a new series titled Stray Bullets: Killers. At Image, Lapham has continued Stray Bullets as a series of story arcs separated into their own miniseries: Stray Bullets: Killers ran for eight issues, followed after a brief hiatus by a second arc: Stray Bullets: Sunshine & Roses ran for forty-two issues.

Awards

edit
  • Eisner Awards
    • 1996 – Best Writer/Artist (for Stray Bullets).
    • 1997 – Best Graphic Album: Reprint (for Stray Bullets: Innocence of Nihilism)
  • Inkpot Award (2005)[5]

Bibliography

edit

As an artist on all unless otherwise noted; additionally writer, where noted:

Valiant Comics

edit

Titles published by Valiant include:

Defiant Comics

edit

Titles published by Defiant include:

DC Comics

edit

Titles published by DC Comics include:

Vertigo

edit

Titles published by DC Comics' Vertigo imprint include:

Wildstorm

edit

Titles published by DC Comics' Wildstorm imprint include:

El Capitan Books

edit

Titles published by El Capitan, Lapham's own publishing company, include:

Dark Horse Comics

edit

Titles published by Dark Horse include:

Marvel Comics

edit

Titles published by Marvel include:

Avatar Press

edit

Titles published by Avatar include:

  • Crossed 3D: Volume 1 (graphic novel, 2011)
  • Crossed Psychopath #1–7 (2011–2012)
  • Crossed Badlands #10–13, 21–24, 33–36 (2012–2013)
  • Caligula #1–6 (2011–2012); writer only
  • Caligula Heart of Rome #1–6 (2012–2013); writer only
  • Ferals #1–18 (2011–2013); writer only
  • Dan the Unharmable #1–12 (2012–2013); writer only

Image Comics

edit

Titles published by Image include:

Other publishers

edit

Titles published by various American publishers include:

Covers only

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ a b David Lapham at the Grand Comics Database
  2. ^ Johnson, Rich (February 16, 2010). "David Lapham To Write Crossed Volume 2: Family Values". Bleeding Cool. Avatar Press. Retrieved February 16, 2010.
  3. ^ Lorah, Michael (April 25, 2007). "David Lapham: Down Among The Silverfish". Newsarama. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved April 25, 2007.
  4. ^ Dark Horse Prepping Predators Prequel and Sequel
  5. ^ Inkpot Award
edit
Preceded by Detective Comics writer
2005–2006
Succeeded by